Tribes seek restoration of federal support for work of genetics lab

Testing equipment at the Native BioData Consortium laboratory in Eagle Buttle. Photo by John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight
Testing equipment at the Native BioData Consortium laboratory in Eagle Buttle. Photo by John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight

Five tribes in South Dakota want their congressional delegation to help restore funding for a research project led in part by a South Dakota genetics lab.

The back-and-forth that’s played out over the past few weeks for the Data for Indigenous Implementations, Interventions, and Innovations Tribal Data Repository project is the latest twist in a funding tale that’s stretched across two presidential…